Chips War (2011)

Directed by: Nicole van Kilsdonk | 86 minutes | drama, family | Actors: Pippa Allen, Rifka Lodeizen, Johnny de Mol, Ruben van der Meer, Leny Breederveld

With ‘Patatje Krijg’, after the book “A small chance” by Marjolijn Hof, Nicole van Kilsdonk adds a very special, beautiful film to her oeuvre and to the top of Dutch children’s films. A girl’s very real fear of losing her father is dealt with in a serious yet very funny way, with scenes that move, entertain and surprise.

Chick is nine. Her father is a doctor at the Red Cross, which means that he often leaves for a war zone, while according to Kiek you are actually going in the wrong direction. Kiek is very afraid that something will happen to her father. He can meet a stray bullet, he can be kidnapped… She’s heard so many times the story her father tells her of the scared man who always stayed in the house and then died because a tree fell on the house: it makes no more impression. It’s also a stupid story, her mother admits, and she explains to Kiek that it’s more a matter of chance. When she asks Kiek how many children with a father and how many without Kiek, it becomes a little clearer for the girl. Your father’s death is a slim chance. But she learns from her teacher at school that you can influence opportunities too. Slowly a plan is developing…

Most striking in ‘Patatje Krijg’ are the imaginative stop motion animation scenes by Mascha Halberstad, Huub Kistemaker and Charlotte van Otterloo. These ensure that a young viewer understands what is going on in the war, without the child being afraid of it. Victims are chips, the weapons are the plastic forks, and blood is ketchup dripping from the chips. Kiek’s dad provides a bandage or plaster and the suffering is over. This technique is also successfully applied when Kiek thinks about possible solutions (‘what time does a mouse die’, ‘different ways to get rid of your girlfriend’). In addition to the scenes about the school musical and those in the skate park, these are the fragments that provide the necessary air.

The roguish Pippa Allen plays the role of the main character with visible ease. But the rest of the cast can also be there. Rifka Lodeizen is the perfect mother, precisely in her imperfection: sweet and caring when necessary, but also convincing in the scenes where she loses control and shows that she is actually just as afraid for her husband’s well-being as her daughter. Leny Breederveld is Kiek’s grandmother. As the mother of Kiek’s father, she has had the same worries as the young girl all her life, and she portrays that perfectly. The few scenes in which Johnny de Mol plays father and daughter together with Pippa are very natural.

‘Patatje Krijg’ is therefore the textbook example of a fine family film: warm and funny, serious and playful and always in balance. It is sure to become as much a classic as the dish from which the film takes its name. That is a big chance.